knowledge

Etymology

From Middle English knowleche, knaweleche, cnawlece (“knowledge”), from knowen (“to know, recognise”) + -leche. Related to Middle English knowlechen (“to find out, acknowledge”). For more on the Middle English suffix -leche, compare freelage. Compare also Old English cnāwelǣċ, cnāwelǣċing (“acknowledging, acknowledgement”).

noun

1. The fact of knowing about something; general understanding or familiarity with a subject, place, situation etc.
   His knowledge of Iceland was limited to what he'd seen on the Travel Channel.
   [N]ow ſuch a liue vngodly, vvithout a care of doing the wil of the Lord (though they profeſſe him in their mouths, yea though they beleeue and acknowledge all the Articles of the Creed, yea haue knowledge of the Scripturs) yet if they liue vngodly, they deny God, and therefore ſhal be denied, […] 1604, Jeremy Corderoy, A Short Dialogve, wherein is Proved, that No Man can be Saved without Good VVorkes, 2nd edition, Oxford: Printed by Ioseph Barnes, and are to be sold in Paules Church-yard at the signe of the Crowne, by Simon Waterson, →OCLC, page 40
   The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure. 2013-08-03, “The machine of a new soul”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847
2. Awareness of a particular fact or situation; a state of having been informed or made aware of something.
3. Intellectual understanding; the state of appreciating truth or information.
   Knowledge consists in recognizing the difference between good and bad decisions.
4. Familiarity or understanding of a particular skill, branch of learning etc.
   Does your friend have any knowledge of hieroglyphs, perchance?
   A secretary should have a good knowledge of shorthand.
5. (philosophical) Justified true belief
6. (archaic or law) Sexual intimacy or intercourse (now usually in phrase carnal knowledge).
   Every time that he had knowledge of her he would leave, either in the bed, or in her cushion-cloth, or by her looking-glass, or in some place where she must needs find it, a piece of money[…]. 1573, George Gascoigne, An Anthology of Elizabethan Prose Fiction, The Adventures of Master F.J.
7. (obsolete) Information or intelligence about something; notice.
   Item, if any ship be in danger[…], every man to bear towards her, answering her with one light for a short time, and so to put it out again; thereby to give knowledge that they have seen her token. 1580, Edward Hayes, “Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to Newfoundland”, in Charles W Eliot, editor, Voyages and Travels Ancient and Modern, Cosimo, published 2005, page 280
8. The total of what is known; all information and products of learning.
   His library contained the accumulated knowledge of the Greeks and Romans.
9. (countable) Something that can be known; a branch of learning; a piece of information; a science.
10. (obsolete) Acknowledgement.
11. (obsolete) Notice, awareness.
12. (UK, informal) The deep familiarity with certain routes and places of interest required by taxicab drivers working in London, England.
    There is only one sure way to memorise the runs and that is to follow them, either on foot, cycle or motor cycle; hence, the familiar sight of would-be cabbies learning the knowledge during evenings and weekends. 2002, Malcolm Bobbitt, Taxi! - The Story of the London Cab

verb

1. (obsolete) To confess as true; to acknowledge.